Harkin, Braley help usher Ryan White Act through to reauthorization

Two Iowa lawmakers played key roles in the debate and passage of the latest reauthorization of the Ryan White Program, ensuring that thousands of Americans living with HIV/AIDS will continue to receive the support and medical care they need.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (center) joins with Pres. Barack Obama and other lawmakers in applauding Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White, during remarks during the signing of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 at the White House. (Photo: Pete Souza, White House Photographer)

The Ryan White Program, the largest federal program specifically dedicated to providing HIV care and treatment, distributes funds to heavily impacted metropolitan areas, states and local community-based organization to provide medical care, medications and support services to more than half a million people each year.

The bill was named after an Indiana teenager, a hemophiliac, who was expelled from school when it was learned that he had contracted the disease from a contaminated blood treatment. Although he died from the disease in April 1990, his struggle prompted a national conversation about the disease as well as funding for treatment and research.

White’s mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, was present at the signing ceremony last week Thursday, as was U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“Today marks an important milestone in our ongoing national struggle with HIV and AIDS,” Harkin said. “Twenty-eight years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first warning about the disease we now know as AIDS. Today, we approve the fourth extension of the Ryan White CARE Act, the comprehensive legislation first enacted in 1990, for the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS.

“As a result of the Ryan White program, we have among the best HIV and AIDS treatment programs in the world. With this new legislation, we’ll make it also the fairest — with greater access for all, higher standards of quality, and guaranteed continuity of care.”

The reauthorization:

• Preserves access to life-saving medications, health care and support services for persons living with HIV and AIDS who have come to depend on publicly-funded systems;
• Extends the system of care to persons with HIV and AIDS who have faced waiting lists for medications and severe limits on their access to specialty health care;
• Protects governmental and community-based institutions charged with providing this care as all face growing case loads and the more challenging needs of an evolving population of persons with HIV/AIDS;
• Balances the needs of high-prevalence cities and states with those experiencing rapidly growing epidemics.

“My hope is that as we continue to improve the Ryan White CARE Act to meet the needs of this disease, the remedies we adopt will continue to come from the bright lights of science, not the dark fears of bigotry. This is an important day for people living with HIV and AIDS, and for all Americans. We must do more to provide care and support for those caught in the epidemic. This legislation will give us the time and support we need to accomplish that goal,” Harkin said.

The Senate bill was crafted by HELP Committee under the guidance of Harkin. On the House side, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley worked within the subcommittee on health to help craft the bill.

In addition to signing the fourth installment of the Ryan White program, President Obama also published a landmark final rule today that ended a two-decade-old ban on entry to the U.S. of persons who were infected with HIV or AIDS.

“[T]ackling this epidemic will take far more aggressive approaches than we’ve seen in the past — not only from our federal government, but also state and local governments, from local community organizations, and from places of worship,” Obama said during the signing ceremony. “But it will also take an effort to end the stigma that has stopped people from getting tested; that has stopped people from facing their own illness; and that has sped the spread of this disease for far too long.

“Twenty-two years ago, in a decision rooted in fear rather than fact, the United States instituted a travel ban on entry into the country for people living with HIV/AIDS.  Now, we talk about reducing the stigma of this disease — yet we’ve treated a visitor living with it as a threat.  We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic — yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country.”